Air India

Air India, formerly Air-India, airline founded in 1932 (as Tata Airlines) that grew into the flagship international airline of India; in addition to domestic routes, it serves southern and eastern Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Australia, the United States, and Canada. Headquarters are in Mumbai.

The first scheduled service was inaugurated in 1932 by J.R.D. Tata, flying mail and passengers between Karachi, Ahmadabad, Bombay (now Mumbai), Bellary, and Madras (now Chennai). By 1939 routes had been extended to Trivandrum, Delhi, Colombo, Lahore, and intermediate points. After World War II, in 1946, Tata Airlines was converted into a public company and renamed Air-India Limited. Two years later, to inaugurate international services between Bombay and Cairo, Geneva, and London, Air-India International Limited was formed.

In 1953 India nationalized all Indian airlines, creating two corporations—one for domestic service, called Indian Airlines Corporation (merging Air-India Limited with six lesser lines), and one for international service, Air-India International Corporation. The latter’s name was abbreviated to Air-India in 1962. In the following decades as India’s flag carrier, the airline extended its international routes to all continents except South America, and it expanded its cargo operations. To gain a competitive advantage in computerized reservation searches, the airline removed the hyphen from its name in 2005 to become Air India.

After India began allowing private airlines in 1994, Air India struggled to remain competitive. Despite a significant loss in market share, the corporation was kept bloated with an oversized fleet and labour force. It began posting losses in 2007 and merged with Indian Airlines later that year to form National Aviation Company of India Ltd. (NACIL; renamed Air India Ltd. in 2010). After accumulating billions of dollars in debt over the next decade, the government began looking to privatize the company in 2017. After years of little success, the airline was finally sold to the Tata Group in 2021.